The last two weeks…

I am happy to report that everything is going super. Our first week end in South Korea we jumped onto the subway and head down line 1 to try and find Insadong street (인 사동). We walked around for a few minutes and stumbled upon something really, really cool: Jongmyo (종 묘)!

which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Entry was only 1,000 won, next time you are in Seoul you have to check out Jongmyo.  This whole finding a world heritage site thing was extremely exciting to me because it is one of my life goals to visit every site on the planet. With 700+ Sites, it should keep me busy for a long, long time.
We finally found Insadong and walked around for a while taking in the sites and talking to the locals, which was neat because many people spoke English because it is a major tourist location. There were many stands making some sort of string/hair-like candy. We got closer we realized they also did some what of a comedy routine while they made this candy. It was very funny! I asked what it was called and they told me it was called “Dragon’s Beard” because it “looks like a dragon’s beard” they explained as they held it close to their chin. DevilGirl bought some for only 5,000 won. Pretty cheap! As we walked away they yelled “I love USA!” So I told him “I love Korea!” We were looking for a place to get some food and we stumbled across a vegetarian restaurant! We got inside, ordered and then noticed there were photos of this Asian lady all over the place: on book, framed photos on the wall, even on some sort of TV show. Turns out it was a restaurant owned by the "Supreme Master” Ching Hai. Which is a spiritual leader of some sort, seemed kind of cult-ish. DevilGirl and I looked at some of her art books which proclaimed her art was “divinely inspired” and she was able to “change art styles at will” which was "a feat not even the best artists in history could accomplish". “Her art all looks the same, what a load of crap” DevilGirl proclaimed defiantly. Which was met with my shushing. LOL.
On the way back I saw an older foreigner named Karl on the subway so I made it a point to talk to him. Gave me his email and promised to take me to meet some other expatiates on Thursday.
The following week I got the feel for my job, the kids and I really started to get the feel for each other. On Thursday, when i went out with Karl I met a really nice guy from New Zealand. I asked him if he had been to any of the places that was in Lord of the Rings. His answer was “I climbed Mtn. Doom, Twice!” I LOLed and told him he should tell girls that. I also ran in to DevilGirls almost co-worker who was a total ass hat. He bragged about doing mean things to his students when they were not paying attention in class. I was openly mocked when I told him that my students love me. He told me that "Korean students only pretend they love you. They all hate you. You sound so naive!" He was very angering because I feel like he is just here in South Korea to mess around, party and get drunk. He is not interested in the teaching profession and as a result I feel that his behavior not only damages the credibility of foreign teachers in South Korea but it damages the very profession of educator. I am here to have a good time, don’t get me wrong but I am also here to start my career. DevilGirl is lucky she did not end up at his school, and I told her so.
The next week end we went to a board game meet up at we found on meetup.com. We met some really awesome people and made friends who don’t want to get drunk every night. The meet up sport was a church but we got kicked out of there because the Korean speaking priest could not speak to us about religion. It was o.k., we as a group walked down the street and I, acting as a scout found a really sweet coffee shop with big foamy chairs. We played the day away! When it was starting to get later DevilGirl and my self went with a few of them to another part of Seoul and found a huge Gandalf statue. We went to eat at this restaurant and we had Makgeolli. which I did not really like because it had a sour taste but DevilGirl liked it. We were invited out the next day to go to GioCat Cafe, which is like if Starbucks had cats that walked around and sat on your lap while you drank your coffee. Pretty sweet. The following day I told my students about it. Gave them the website and pretty much all of them wrote it down. I should get in free next time!
I also finally got a haircut which was an experience in its self. It could have turned out very bad but it came out alright. The haircut was really cheep also, only 7,000 won. If i would have gone to a similar place in the United States it would have set me back $15.00 minimum. I think I will save this for a later time and do one blog post about getting a haircut.
I have been sick the whole time I have been in Korea, which is a disappointment. Last night I got really Ill so when I came in to work I was forced to go to the nurse's office and lay down. After lunch i was feeling much better, the migraine, dizziness, chills and diarrhea had gone away so I made my way back to my desk. When my students saw me I was swarmed and asked if I was alright. This is how I know my students love me, I treat them with respect and that earns me their respect in return. Some one should tell DevilGirl's almost coworker this!

Yesterday after work I had to go out to eat with all the other teachers in my school. For people who don’t know it is very common in Korean society. The restaurant was way up in the mountains, past some sweet looking traditional Korean buildings with the pointed roofs and such. We went inside quickly because it started snowing and got seated on the floor pillows; the tables were very low to the ground. I could see the main dish, which was beef and mushrooms. They have an interesting way of cooking it; the food is put in a large deep plate (not quite a bowl) which is then rested on a gas stove. A lady came around and poured hot soup in the plate and the stove is turned on. The soup boils and seasons the mushrooms and beef. There were also lots of side dishes; Kimchi, miso soup, lots of different mushroom dishes and lots of other stuff I had no idea what it was. I did not eat the beef as I do not eat beef so Jane ordered me a fish which was served with its head still attached. Up until this point for the last 9 to 10 years I have not eaten any meat, but after nearly a week in Korean I knew it was going to be much, much more of a challenge to stay meat free. In America it is much easer because I order the ______ with out the ______. But here, that is not possible because I can not speak Korean. So I stared at that fish for probably 5 minutes thinking, “do I really want to do this?” The Fish, having its head, looked right back at me with its baked eyeballs and seemed to say “look you asshole, I am already dead. You better not let me go to waste.” So I dig in at ate the whole thing, and as I remember from the before time when I ate all meat regularly – I enjoyed the skin. I know that sounds nasty but I like how it is crunchy.

That was not the only hard part about the night, which lasted from abut 430 till 830, every one spoke only Korean. I was feeling a little bit invisible not being able to talk to any one. After a while the principal, drunk on Soju, would stand up and give 5-10 minute long speeches (I think at least, they could have been plotting my death for all I know) in which every one would be silent and he would cry, scream, stomp his foot. Then when he sat down every one would clap. He did this probably 5 times over the course of the night. One point he started crying so hard, sobbing. I looked around and I did not need to be able to speak Korean to read every ones face which was a glossed over look of boredom. Their faces screamed, “Just shoot me”. The whole situation made me feel very alone. I am the only native English speaker in my whole school, Devilgirl on the other hand has other native English speakers at her school. It makes me feel like I am all alone at times.

When I got home, I fired up my computer and started to warm my apartment. Hoping DevilGirl was online and home and wanting to talk. No luck, she was still shopping in Seoul with her co-workers. Not having anything at all to even do, I went to bed. I hope this is not how the next year is going to be. :-\

Good bye, America; 안녕하세요 한국 (Hello, Korea)

Picking up our passports was a breeze. We then took a bus to Santa Monica came back to the Hotel and played XBOX360 until the super shuttle came. When we finally boarded the plane, I was surprised that it was so BIG! I felt like I had to walk forever to get to the back where we were sitting. The actual plane ride was not bad, we left at midnight so they gave us a HOT MEAL (which was included) and every one went to sleep real quick. The plane was also equipped with TVs in the back of the head rests which showed movies and video games, also it had a sky map which showed where the airplane is and cameras that show what the pilot sees and another that points down. Also with the meals they gave FREE wine! Amazing! Any ways I slept  for 8 hours and so when I woke up I only had 5 hours left. They served another HOT MEAL (Korea Air does not mess around when it comes too food) and I watched some crazy Hong Kong action flick and then played some games and watched the sky map and we flew over Japan. I could see much of what ever city we flew over. When we landed at ICN I was thinking “that was a piece of cake!” --- I later decided the flight was so easy because they treat you so good. We then had to go through immigration which was weird. My first impression of the airport was that it was really, really clean. We got our bags and met a guy who works for our recruiting company. He drove DevilGirl and myself to Uijeongbu. First we went to DevilGirls place and then I was whisked off to my School to meet my teachers and principal. My co-teacher is very nice, her English name is Jane. She showed me around and when I met the principal he had a meeting with Jane, the vice-principal and another teacher -- all in Korean. I had no idea what they were saying but I was later told by the guy who drove us to Uijeongbu that the principal liked they way I looked because I am tall. I was told to go to my apartment and then my co-teacher would come get me in a few hours. I was dropped off at my apartment with a room number and some keys, after getting in to the building I was feeling lonely so I turned on the computer and found a open WIFI connection to leach off of, and Devil Girl was on so I went to here house. Luckily I had marked her location with my Garmin Dakota GPS so I was able to walk there which is about 1.7 miles. I got there and spent time with her and then went back to my place in time for my co-teacher to come get me and introduce me to some students who said that they loved my face and that I was handsome. LoL!
Saturday, Devil Girl and I went out to explore and found an underground mall, it was pretty sweet and the close are super cheep. Other than clothes they had lots and lots of cell phones, probably about 200-300 different kinds in probably 50-75 different shops. The most popular from what I can tell is the "lollipop 2" which has the Korean Pop Musicians "Big Bang" as their spokes persons. Another thing is it seems like all the store in this mall were just named random English names and phrases, like a mens clothing store name "Cheetos" and a womans clothing store named "bling bling" only  it sold very respectable looking outfits --- not "ghetto fabulous" in the least. After we found our way home from the mall using my GPS(comes in handy) we chilled out and then DevilGirl's co-worker showed us to Home Plus which is like 4 stories of shopping bliss. DevilGirl already talked about it in a previous post so I wont get into it too much. One thing I will say is the people there are like 400 times nicer then in the states. We got some shampoo off the shelf and then a worker came up to us and said "1+1". Apparently it was buy one, get one free and she wanted to make sure we got the deal. This happened a few other times and this blew my socks off because this would never happen in the US.
Sunday the two of us went with DevilGirls's Co-worker to meet the "Bu Crew" which was cool to talk to other English speakers. We left early because the "Bu Crew" likes to party till 4-6 in the morning and well DevilGirl and I are just not into that. We were a ways from home and having a hard time getting a taxi --- so a English Speaking Korean came up to us and told us he would help. He was very nice and seemed like he just wanted to practice his English --- which we was pretty good at. Any ways he got us a taxi and told the driver where to go. He was so nice and welcomed us to South Korea. We finally got back to my place and went straight to bed.
Sunday we just hung out at my place and rested, then it started raining so I walked DevilGirl home in the rain and got my feet wet on the way back. Blah. Went to bed at like 9 am --- Monday is my first day at work, which went very well. I got ready quickly and was cursing the rain when my shoes were not dry yet. Luckily Jane picked me up and drove me to school because it was still raining.
My students are too cute for words. They seem to be so excited to have a new teacher. One little girl gave me a sucker and told me happy white day. :)
I also had a physical today which cost me 62,000 won. crappy. I took the needle like a champ and afterwards Jane took me out for yummy Korean food which was a lot like sushi. yum. Excited for tomorrow!

Our first weekend in Korea

Three days in Los Angeles, 13 hours on a plane, and we’ve made it to the hermit kingdom. We arrived at 6:30 am to a gray day, and stepped off the plane into the cleanest airport I have ever been in. Customs was easy, we didn’t get asked any questions because we have the right visas. We spotted our bags immediately on the carousel, and no one was around so we didn’t have to wait for our position to get our bags. With bags in tow we found the man that was to take us to our apartments. It was all amazingly easy.

The first day was so long. I was shown my apartment and devil boy was whisked away to see his school and see his apartment. I was left in a barren room, a bed with a rock hard mattress still wrapped in plastic. I rested and stared out my window. I am really here!!

sneak peak of my place, when I first arrived

my apartment building. I live on the 3rd floor. I have a view of that lovely power line.

Devil Boys apartment building, he is also on the 3rd floor yet has a sweet mountain view and corner deck/clothes drying room.

I don’t think apartments in Korea are made with much care. Nothing is level, hideous wallpaper is unevenly spaced, cabinet doors are too snug. In spite of these things, I am making the best of it. These past 3 days I have acquired items that make the space more cheerful. It already feels like mine, a place I can feel comfortable and safe in.

 

The city itself is amazing. It blows my mind how easy it is to get around. Anything I could want is in walking distance. And if it isn’t walking distance, taxis are so cheap if you can manage to flag one down. Apparently taxi drivers don’t like picking up foreigners because the American military people stationed here have left a bad impression. So when DevilBoy was wearing his military style hat, the cab drivers would honk and wave. This is their signal for “no way am I stopping for you”

So far I have been to a pedestrian street lined with bars, shops, and restaurants, an underground mall with clothes and cell phones galore, an open air market with strange produce and new smells, and Home Plus!

home plus is the one with the red sign on the right side

Home Plus is huge. It is like a Target Greatlands plus a Fry's Marketplace plus a Macys. You can get clothes in all price ranges (clothes are found on all 4 floors of this place), books in Korean and English (very small English section, but it is there!), groceries, furniture, appliances, camping supplies, you name it it is at home plus. The ground floor even has a food court with food ranging from Burger King to fresh Sushi. Home Plus is a major landmark in Uijeongbu.

on a ramp in home plus. the wheels of the shopping carts have groves on them that match the groves on the ramp so the cart can not slide down while you are riding it up or down

get your heated toilet seat at home plus!

a coloring book about different cultures. awesome.

i found a hula hoop! but it is too heavy and costs around 45 bucks.

I am looking forward to starting my job tomorrow. I can’t wait to meet all the little kids who I will be teaching for the next year!

Good bye Arizona

Good bye Arizona

The day finally came, DevilGirl and I left Arizona yesterday never to return... or at least not for 365 days. We made it into LAX quickly and took a super shuttle to our hotel, “Stay”. It is a darling Hostel/Boutique Hotel hybrid in a part of LA that is undergoing a renaissance.
We are in a private room which is pretty basic but still very nice other than this fact. The only “bad” thing (which I do not mind) is we have to share the bathrooms with the rest of the floors (it is dormitory style). So far Id recommend Stay! For dinner we walked down the road a bit and found a nice Shish Kabob place on the corner of  Main and 3rd Street in Downtown LA. The owner was very nice and made us falafel that was the size of our palms, he said he made them extra big because he respects teachers. On the way we just had to stop   at “BIGMANbakes” a delightful cupcake cafe. Much better than Sprinkles, which is what I am used to in Arizona.
Today I could not sleep, I work up at like 5 am local time and just laid in bed and listened to some loud drunks in the alley. After awhile I got DevilGirl up and we got to the subway. Took it to the KoreaTown and has yummy steel cut oatmeal at Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.  While we waited for the Consulate to open we discussed how we were and how excited we are to go to Korea. When the Consulate finally opened we quickly took care of our business and came back to the hotel. We were done before 10! Tomorrow we have to pick up our visas at 10 so DevilGirl says she is going to force me to stay up late. Don't know if it will work, the TV in our room has this bright light on it that glows. I think it looks like the Eye of Sauron. Yeah I am a nerd. Later we went to the La Brea Tar Pits, which was really sweet.  Saw “Pit 91” an actual “pit” of tar with the bones of Dire Wolves and Saber Tooth tigers Sticking out of it. Pretty sweet.  After that we went to a museum that had an exhibit on the history of Tarot cards and a other exhibit on textiles from central asia – you know the “stans”; Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, ect. They had a video that i found especially interesting on yurts; which are like teepees on steroids. Cool stuff.  Tomorrow we get our passport with visas and head to Korea!